Saturday, April 15, 2006

Our Ukraine: Aloof and Stalling

I wrote to Oksana Kolodnytska, who's been featured a number of times on this blog, just after the elections to ask why she thought her home state carried Tymoshenko and why she thought that Ty did so well in the elections in general. She wrote (in English. . .these are her words):

"So, I think she had the image of a victim who was fighting against oligarchs, was betrayed, and as my dad said, many felt deceived by Yushchenko and so she seemed to be their last hope. One more reason why people voted for her, is that they didn't hear any firm promise from OUR Ukraine not to form a coalition with the Regions after the election. In fact, three days before the elections Yushchenko in an interview on 1 plus 1 was very evasive about the question of possible coalition withthe Regions. Tymoshenko's team did a good job of getting their message out about no compromise with Regions.

There were practically no ads for Tymoshenko on TV while we watched tons of shitty advertisements for Our Ukraine, Regions, Lytvyn, Vitrenko and others. Tymoshenko went to different cities and towns, gathered crowds of people, inspired them. Her voice became hoarse because of the constant shouting, talking. She's an energizer. She spent a lot of money on this campaign. . ."

End of quote.

This makes me recall that Yushchenko's stardidn't begin to fall just last Januarywith the Gas Deal; no, it was theMemorandum withYanukovych that caused it to start falling from the sky.Ever since, people have been waitingto see how far he was willing to compromise on their ideals.They saw no sign that gave them any hope. Hence the vote.Now all the stalling makes him appear as aloof as ever. . .Which makes me recall somethin' else, thefollowing front page that appeared just afterthe memorandum last fall (on a pro-Tymoshenko paper whosetitle I unfortunately clipped when scanning andhave now forgotten. . .)